The permissibility of naming child 'Shareed' and what it means

12-4-2014 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalamualaikum my question is regarding name. I named my son Shareed, the name was found by my dad in Riyazus saliheen which had reference to Abu Dawood. I would like to know the meaning of this name and is it permissible to name the child with this name. The reference to the hadees where the name is mentioned is-chapter no.5 and hadees no. 824

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His Slave and Messenger.

The meaning of the name “Shareed” according to the book entitled Az-Zaahir fi Ma‘rifat Kalimaat An-Naas by Al-Anbaari is as follows, “There are two possible meanings for the word “Shareed”: it may refer to a person who flees. Arabs use the past tense “sharad” to describe the stray camel if it flees from its master. Al-Asma‘i (renowned Arab scholar and anthologist, one of the earliest Arabic lexicographers and one of the three leaders of the Basri school of Arabic grammar) said that it means: 'the singular'.” [Briefly excerpted]

As for the religious ruling on giving your child this name, there is no apparent impediment because it is not an Islamically unacceptable name. The criteria for considering a name forbidden or disliked according to the Islamic Sharee'ah are the following:

The name should not express worship of, enslavement or submission to any other than Allaah such as ‘Abd Ar-Rasool (slave of the Messenger). It should not be one of the names that are particular to Allaah or an attribute of Allaah with the Arabic definite article "Al-" such as Ar-Rahmaan, Al-‘Aleem, and Malik Al-Mulook (King of kings), etc. It should not have an unpleasant meaning; and it should not imply self-praise.

For more benefit, please refer to Fataaw 87262 and 82724.

Allaah Knows best.